


Where The Mind Is Bigger Than The Body

by Moonsheen



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alien POV, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Badass Rey, Cephalopods, Colonialism, F/M, Fix-It, Forget The Rise of Skywalker, Gen, Jedi Finn (Star Wars), Kill it if you have to, Let The Rise of Skywalker die, Metaphysics, Mission Fic, No seriously forget it, Octopus Girl, POV Original Character, Post-Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Post-War, Redemption, The Force, Worldbuilding, anti-colonialism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-11
Updated: 2020-01-11
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:40:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22204978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moonsheen/pseuds/Moonsheen
Summary: On a weird little planet -- remote even for a galaxy far, far away -- a little girl meets a brave young woman named Rey and her mysterious bodyguard.In related news, Rey is not a fan of child labor.
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey
Comments: 22
Kudos: 144





	Where The Mind Is Bigger Than The Body

**Author's Note:**

> hi, so The Rise of Skywalker didn't happen. Rey Palpatine didn't happen. Redemption through death didn't happen. Please pretend a movie happened after The Last Jedi that ended with this instead ok, three, two, one LET'S JAM!

“Chio Ayo! Chio Ayo!” called the foreman. “Where are you, you silly little thing?” 

Chio Ayo rolled off of her little sleeping palette. She rested there between shifts. As she wove her way through the weavers and the runners, she could see why the foreman had bellowed so. In each and every one of the bubbling dye pools, a mechanical comb stirred them -- and at that moment each and every one of them was stopped. The other children were gathered nervously at the banks of the pools. The crankers and the spinners, the little hands that operated the little machinery that kept the combs a going, and not a single one wanted to go near it just then. 

Chio skittered over, her chin tentacles aflutter. “I am here, foreman,” she signed. She hoped it was enthusiastic enough for the foreman, whose mouth was set in a terrible scowl, his hands on his hips. She knew enough humans to know that was a sign of severe agitation. “What do you need?”   
  
She knew the answer already, but the foreman hated when people got ahead of him. That was a sure way to get the worst duties in the dye fields.

“Took you long enough,” he bawled. He jabbed her with his rod, but not too heavily, as he still needed her. “One of the combs is jammed, and these cowards won’t check to see which it is. They say you know the trick. So do it. Time is money, and money is your dinner. Girl!” 

Chio signed very assuringly. “Oh, yes, I know. Of course. I shall get right to it.” 

And she quivered her feet tentacles in a way that the other children hoped would notice as a quiet little apology, for she knew what the foreman was like in a temper.

Chio sat down next to the dye pool, tied her chin tentacles in a braid, and began to concentrate.

“I did not say you could take a break, you lazy brat,” muttered the foreman, but Nio, bless her, very obediently signed that this was a very important part of the process. 

Chio went Away after that, to the place in her head that was bigger than her body. She could see herself, sitting in thought. She could see the dye fields, bright and hot. She could see the machines arms, which stretched over them like the bones of the great elder things that lived in this planet centuries ago. She could see the tiny pieces that made up each of those machines, the metals they were made from, the stone they had once been -- oh, but Chio was getting beside herself. She pulled away from that and let her awareness drift to the bigger, the more solid, the fact that one of the teeth of the third comb in the red pool had jammed against some rocks at the bottom of the pool, and it would need to be realigned.

She came back to the small space of her body and reported as much, trying this time not to be too eager in her signing. “It is there,” she gestured to the offending pool and the comb jammed at an angle. “There is a rock, and the comb is stuck in it.”

“Ugh, too much to call the mechanic,” muttered the foreman. “He’ll gouge the guts out of us. One of you, you lazy things, go out there! Pull it free.”

The dye pools were seering hot and stank of chemicals. Everyone remembered last week, when little Biyo had burned himself badly when the chemicals had made him dizzy and he’d tripped into them.

“The mechanic’s bill will come out of your meals,” warned the foreman. Chio vented in exasperation and volunteered herself.

“I’ll go, I see it,” she gestured. 

She’d been practicing her balance, anyway.

Chio ventured out across the great metal rods that swung the combs -- each no thicker than a human’s upper arm. She moved very carefully, feet tentacles lining up behind each other. Every time she felt herself sway, she let herself go away, to that place in her head that was bigger than her body. It made the air feel more like a presence, that she could grip and keep from pitching sideways. The arms of the comb shook beneath her, despite her lightness. The bubbling dye pools frothed and belched, the bitter scent filled her vents, and the foreman yelled loud but incomprehensible encouragements from the banks. At last she reached the third comb in the reed pool. The spine of the comb itself was even narrower than the arms. She had to wind her feet tentacles extra tight around it as she slithered out. It rocked. She nearly pitched, but the place in her head that was bigger than her body was a safe place, and she swayed, but did not fall, as she reached with her chin tentacles to wrap around the upper half of the jammed tooth and yanked.

It did not budge. It groaned angrily. Anger was such a problem sometimes. Angry things were stuck things. Chio shut her round glassy eyes and went Away again. What need is there for anger? She asked the tooth. What need is there to be so stuck? And there, why there? This she asked the rock. And the rock, rather obligingly was all at once no longer there, but instead five inches to the left, and not in the combs way at all, and Chio opened her eyes in great excitement.

Thank you, she thought, thank you! I shall eat tonight and think of you!

But she heard the loud clapping of Nio on the other side of the pools. “Chio! Chio! Look out!” 

She’d forgotten that once the comb could move again it would move. She’d forgotten that she was on it. It swayed suddenly, resuming its fixed pattern with not anger but simple understanding it had a job to do. It moved so fast, and so strong, and Chio had been so distracted, her tentacles came loose and she felt herself pitch to the side as the boiling red dyes seemed to surge upwards to meet her fragile flesh --

Then everything stopped.

Not in a bad way. Not in a dead way, either. Simply, the comb decided it would no longer move, and Chio’s body decided that it would no longer fall. In fact, Chio’s body moved not up or down, but rather stayed where it was, suspended over the boiling dyes. Except the dye wasn’t boiling, either. It decided to stay still, too. One of the bubbles was frozen in the middle of bursting, blooming like a flower.

Then suddenly Chio was no longer dangling over the pool, but resting on the bank. Someone was holding her -- not Nio, whom would have had more arms, but a human, who had only two. They were small arms, but strong arms. They belonged to a human in white. Woman, from the shape of her. 

“It’s all right little one, you’re safe now,” said the woman, in a soft thrumming voice that Chio decided then and there she liked very much. Though the scrapey pitch in her voice, Chio could tell that this woman was very frightened, like the foreman so often got after he spoke to the overseer. The woman squeezed Chio gently, but reassuringly. Chio had never been held by an adult like that before.

“Thank you,” said the woman, over Chio’s head. She spoke to a second human, who stood closer to the bank, one which wore dark grey, and a hood that hid his face. He -- Chio assumed, because many male humans were larger than female ones -- held his hand out towards the dye pools, fingers extended. The bubbles were still frozen. 

“Should I let it go?” He had a deep, toneless voice -- it reminded Chio of the rock which had caught the comb’s tooth.

“No,” said the woman. “I want a word with them first.”

“Thought you might say something like that,” said the man, with a hint of feeling. He closed his fingers into a fist, and the combs began to shake and whine. “Hm. Well. Have at it.” 

“It’s all right, we’re with you,” whispered the woman, close to Chio’s vents. “I’m Rey. It’s very good to meet you.”

Then she stood, her eyes ablaze, as the foreman rounded the bank, drumming his rod angrily.

“Hey,” roared the foreman, flushed and tense. He was afraid. He got angry when he was afraid, and there was not much talking him out of it. “Hey! What is this! What do you think you’re  _ doing _ ?!”

Rey marched to meet him, her head high.

“What am  _ I _ doing?!” she spat, with no fear in her posture at all. “I should ask that of  _ you _ !” 

Chio knew then the foreman had met his match. 

* * *

Chio decided she liked Rey very much, even if she yelled a lot and flailed her arms and managed to scare the foreman into calling the owner to deal with her. The foreman wanted Chio to go back to helping the other children on shift, but the woman named Rey wouldn’t have it. Chio would come with them. She would not have her near those pools again. So, when they all piled on the drifter to take them to the owner’s office up the hill, Chio came with them. Rey put her on her lap, and checked all her face tentacles, just to make sure none of them were burned.

“What’s your name, little one?” asked Rey, in that sweet voice Chio liked.

Chio whistled the name, and signed alongside it. “Chio Ayo. Chio is fine.”

“Chio,” said Rey, smiling. She even got the little sing-song part right. Most humans didn’t. “Well, you were brave to do that, Chio, but that was very dangerous. Have you done that before?”

“Yes,” signed Chio. “Many times. I am usually better at it, but the red pool is bigger and stronger than the other pools. I am very sorry I messed it up this time.”

For some reason, that made Rey hug her again.

“Don’t be sorry,” she said. “Do you like doing things like this?”

“I am doing very important work,” signed Chio.

“Yes, but do you like it?”

Chio thought about her answer this time. “If I do not do it, I do not eat.” 

“I’ll buy you some treats.” Rey squeezed her reassuringly. “You’ll never have to do that again. Not if I have any say in it.”

“We’ve got company,” murmured the man. He’d sat in silence next to them, not introducing himself or commenting on the proceedings until then. His legs were almost too long for the drifter. He’d tucked himself up carefully, but he still seemed to take up most of the space. He tilted his hood in the general direction of the owner’s office -- built into the old temple -- and the owner, who came strutting out of the office in his typical day robes. The brightly colored fabrics made proudly from the very dyes and threads made here on Ilithim. 

“We are the company,” muttered Rey. She carefully set Chio down and swung herself off the drifter, feet first. 

“How can I help you strangers?” said the owner, with his big toothy smile. It was the smile he put on all the holo-grams on Ilithim, and the ones that left Ilithim, too. “Heard you made a real splash down by the pools.”

“Thank goodness we  _ didn’t _ ,” said Rey. “Why do you have children working down there? This girl could have been hurt. She could have been killed.”

“Oh no,” said the owner. “That’s--” he paused to peer over at the drifter. “Chio Ayo! Yes, Chio Ayo. She’s a real native here. She’s one of our best. You know, this dye-works really important to the Ilithim people. It’s part of their culture. Why, in the days of the Old Republic, I’m told they sent their kids out to work on those dyes before they even had legs!” 

“And were you born here?” asked Rey, with that flat press of her lips that suggested she already knew the answer.

“Oh, no,” said the owner. “I’m from the guilds. Born and bred among the stars! But I really respect the culture. Everything we do here is 100% authentic. And completely legal, I might add.” 

“I see,” said Rey. “Then if everyone is completely legal, everyone here is getting paid, aren’t they?”

The owner’s smile froze.

“Ah,” he said, the corner of his lip twinging. “Let’s go in for some tea, yeah?”

* * *

They went in and had tea. Rey pulled out a delicious bean bun from her sack.

“Can you eat this, Chio?” she asked. Chio assured her she could -- and tried not to be too greedy about taking it. She hadn’t bean buns in a long time and this one looked especially fat and delicious. She ate it happily, seated between Rey and the strange man -- while the owner talked and talked and talked. He talked about the famous dye pools. He talked about the Ilithim textiles. He talked about the Ilithim people, and their traditions, and how respected -- and lucrative -- they were across the galaxy. He stressed the word lucrative a lot. He brought in the tea on beautiful native dishes. Credit chips conveniently tucked around the cups as decoration.

Rey ignored these, and left her tea untouched.

“You say the textiles were an Ilithim family tradition?”

“Yes,” said the owner, trying to nod at the credit chip as though to say: Hey, hey, did you see? You can take it now? “In fact, each finished textile represents one of the blooms -- clans, you see. That’s what the natives call it.”

“But it seems like most of the children you keep working the pools are orphans.”

“...it’s unfortunate,” said the owner. His regretful smile didn’t reach his eyes. “We find them by the barrelfull, on a world like this. That’s kind of how it is with war, you know?”

“The First Order had no business in this system,” interrupted the man, his voice like a roll of thunder in the room.

The owner went a little pale.

“-- well, before that. There was the Empire, and well, a few trade disputes here and there -- the Ilithid clans took some heavy losses, you know? The guilds came in here to fix things. We’re still getting back on our feet, though. In the meantime, little girls like Chio here need a home, you know? Isn’t that right, Chio?”

He gave her a very pointed stare. Chio stared back. She jiggled her chin tentacles in a vague affirmation. He went back to blessedly ignoring her. Rey’s quietly reached over to touch her hand tentacles -- before she finally reached for the credit chip next to her teacup. The owner eased back, relieved.

“You can keep this,” said Rey. “The children are of more interest to me.”

“Oh, you’d like to buy her? Her contract, that is! Well, she won’t come cheap. As I said, she is one of our best little mechanics. A real tribute to her people.”

“I think you misunderstand me,” said Rey. “I meant all the children. I intend to take them from this place. Money is not the issue for me.” 

She set the credit chip down and slid it across the table. The owner caught it. 

“I see,” he said, pocketing it. “Well. That’s a bigger transaction. Let me go call my accountant. Wait right here.”

Digging through the front of his robes for a communicator, he left the room.

The man next to them sighed and leaned back on the couch.

“He’s angry,” he reported.

“You mean he’s about to do something stupid,” said Rey.

“Extremely.”

“Chio,” say Rey, very seriously. “I think it would be best if you closed your eyes.” 

Chio closed her eyes, but she was very curious about what was about to happen, so she went Away to that place in her head that was bigger than her body. In that place, the room was incidental, a flowering bloom of trees that once grew on the mountain, and rocks that once nestled in the ground. In that place, Rey was a bright star, the man next to her its shadow, attached in such a way that Chio could not wholly be sure which was which. Four other lights appeared. One was that sickly murky cloud that she recognized as the owner. The other three were more of a mild, staticky muckiness -- not so much a presence as they were unpleasant splots on the colorful palette of existence.

Rey bounced between them. Her shadow swung around them. Chio heard shouting and a beautiful humming. In the place in her mind bigger than her body, she saw a magnificent pillar of light.

Then the great brightness that was Rey approached her, eclipsing all she could see.

Rey said, “All right, Chio. I know you didn’t listen to me. You can open your eyes now, though.”

Chio did. She signed sheepishly. “Sorry, I was curious.”

Rey sighed and switched off the beautiful pillar of light -- which somehow still materialized even in the space that wasn’t Away. “I would have been too.”

The table was on its side. The teacups were smashed on the floor. Two large humans and a maned Hroff man lay groaning among the wreckage. Alive, and deeply regretful for it. The hooded man in grey had his arm around the owner’s neck, holding him tight enough he could only grunt.

“I could,” offered the man in grey, a slight tightening of his arm, and the owner began to turn purple in a way Chio did not know humans could manage. “They would be better for it.”

Rey shook her head. “No, Ben. We can’t do it like that.” 

The shadow -- Ben, apparently -- released the owner.

“Be thankful for her,” he said, simply.

The owner wheezed, desperate for oxygen. Chio remembered then that humans didn’t breathe through vents or through their skin.

“As I was saying,” he gasped, clasping his hands together as he stepped over the prone, groaning men. “Is that I am willing to consider a loan!” 

* * *

Nio’s tentacles were so excited she could barely sign when she saw then ship.

“Chio!” she whistle-signed. “Chio, are we really going into space?” 

“I don’t know!” signed Chio. Then she tugged on Rey’s hand with her hand tentacles. “Rey are we going to space?”

“Oh, we’ll be sub-orbital, mostly, but if you want to come with me while we do a run to the moon base, I can take you,” said Rey, kneeling to look at her, while her shadow Ben showed the others onto the ship, taking a particular note to warn them about a gap in the entrance ramp. Nio waddled after him before Chio could report her findings. That was fine though, because Rey touched Chio’s head and said: “I won’t take you anywhere you don’t want to go.”

“But where will we be going now?” asked Chio. 

“There are a few places I have in mind,” said Rey, “but first, can you answer something for me, Chio? You could see us fight, even though you’d closed your eyes. Can you tell me how you did that?”

It took Chio a bit to figure out how to form the words with her tentacles. “There is a place in my head bigger than me,” she said at last. “It is the Away place. I go Away when I need to see things that are not me.” 

“Away,” said Rey, nodding to herself. “I like that word for it. I can do that, too. Though I call it the Force.” 

“But why is it the Force?” asked Chio. “Isn’t that what you say when you push something? It does not push. Not always It is not violent.”   
  
“It’s not gentle, either.”   
  
“No, it simply is!”

Rey smiled, and put her arms around her.

“That is a beautiful way to think of it,” she said. “Listen, I have a friend, Finn. He’s going to try and build a school here. Have you ever been to school?”

Chio shook her head sadly. The owner had promised they’d go to school if they worked hard enough, but none of them had managed that just yet.

“You don’t have to go, and if you do, you don’t have to stay,” said Rey. “But if you do go, and you do want to stay, you’ll learn a lot more about the Away, and about yourself. Do you like the sound of that?”

Chio curled her tentacles thoughtfully. She thought she knew everything she ever needed to know about herself, but the idea that there were things about Away she hadn’t considered was new to her. She decided to confirm the important things first.

“Will there be more bean buns?” 

“As many as you like,” laughed Rey. “Come along, little one. We’re late for the tour. I’ll show you the cockpit. How’s that sound?”

Chio fluttered her vents with joy as she followed Rey up the ramp. She even knew to hop over the gap. She’d been paying attention. 

* * *

The rest of the children decided to play in the lounge. They especially liked the old holograph board. They flipped through animations and cooed. Little Biyo slept in the berth to the side. His burns had only started to heal, but Rey promised there’d be a proper medical station in the capital base. They had functioning bacta tanks. They would fix him up as good as could be done.

Still, despite Nio’s requests to play, Chio decided she wanted to stay in the cockpit. So she crept back in, following the Away, to be extra quiet about it. She didn’t want to bother anyone.

The two humans were getting the ship ready to fly. Ben slouched in one of the chairs, with his feet up. He’d pulled his hood down. Chio was surprised to find he had a face. It was a human face, with black hair and black eyes. He looked a lot like how his voice sounded. Dark and toneless, yet somehow reassuring in how immovable it was, like the stones that made up the bottom of the dye pools. He nodded as Rey slipped into the seat beside him. He took his feet off of the console. 

“...All set?” he asked, quietly.

“Present and accounted for,” said Rey. She started to flip switches. The ship gave a horrible groaning belch. Rey’s eyes widened. She moved to get up -- he reached across the seats to pull her back down.

“Some moss fell in the thrusters,” he said. “It always makes that sound when the filters get choked.”

“How do you--” He gave her a look, which seemed to be an answer, because she smiled a little sadly and said instead. “...We should be gone before they call in the local authorities, at least.”

“If they even bother,” said Ben. The faint ghost of a smile vanished. The stoneyness returned. “Men like that know when to cut their losses. We’ve probably put him out a day or so.”

Rey sat forward. “But--”

“-- it was worth it. You’re right, of course,” said Ben, “but he’ll find another source. He said it himself. The guilds keep a careful crop of war orphans, in a world like this. There’s no real stopping it.” 

“It seems that way, doesn’t it?” Rey sighed, and nudged some strange, fat feathered creature off the console. “But for what it’s worth, I tipped off the New Republic when we landed. They said they’d send a delegate, to make sure everything’s really as to regulation as they’re claiming.”

“Who are they sending?”   
  
“Who do you think?”

Something silent passed between them, in that space that was bigger than both their bodies, where they were attached at the heels, like a light and its shadow. 

“Huh,” said Ben. He looked at her. “That might do it.” 

The thrusters engaged. The landing gear withdrew. The ship pitched and made a horrible noise, like a dying Nacthung, but the greenery of the jungles dropped away, and soon they were streaking across the canopy.

“Chio,” said Rey. Chio jumped in place. She had been tucked in the Away, and Rey hadn’t glanced back at her, not even once. “Sorry to ruin your hiding place, but I know you’re there. Do you know if you or any of the children have any families who might miss you?”

Biyo had a clan who’d had to leave him because of a guild fight. Nio’s mother worked in the capital. Chio could not remember her parents. As far as she knew, she was a child of the tide pools -- that is to say someone who had no known family at all.

“That’s all right,” said Rey. “We’ll find you one. Whatever one you like, how does that sound?”

As long as there were bean buns, it was the best idea Chio had ever heard. 

* * *

Tarrs Boemi was relieved when the beautiful bullet shaped ship landed in his private dock. It’s not that he’d wanted to involve the outworld authorities, but that strange couple had gotten away so quickly, so without a trace, he knew he’d have to bring in the big guns if he ever wanted to see his property again.

He threw on his most resplendent robes and came out to meet the delegation. It had been a long time since the New Republic had had the resources to answer the calls of the outermost systems in their space, but since the end of the second war, their resources had grown quite a bit.

That was fine. Tarrs was ready to feather a few nests. He certainly had the textiles to do it with style.

“Friends,” he cried, as the ramp came down. “I am Tarrs Boemi. I am relieved you came so quickly. I will of course assist you in any way possible. For the safety of those poor children, I hope this comes to a speedy -- and just -- resolution.”

The delegate marched down the ramp and fixed him with a long, steely stare.

She was quite a bit shorter than expected.

“Yeah, it’d better,” she said, waving a particularly aggressive multi tool in the air in front of her, “because this place is in violation of so many new labor regulations it’ll make your teeth hurt. Have you seen these chemical readings? Hope you’ve got explanation for the new Cultural Committee, because if not? You’re sunk.”

Tarrs Boemi’s smile melted away like poorly fixed dye.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “What was your name again?”   
  
“Rose Tico,” said the delegate, holding up the multi-tool in front of her face with all the diabolical energy of an engineer about to descend on her latest project. “Let’s talk.” 

  
  



End file.
